Battery charging control system and method for vehicle

ABSTRACT

A battery charging control method for a vehicle may include: a failure determining step of determining, by a controller, whether a first voltage converter and a second voltage converter equipped in the vehicle are broken; a charging requiring determining step of determining, by the controller, whether an auxiliary battery needs to be charged when the first voltage converter and the second voltage converter are not broken; and a charging step of charging, by the controller, the auxiliary battery by connecting an input terminal of the auxiliary battery to an output terminal of the first voltage converter outputting a voltage higher than a voltage of an output terminal of the second voltage converter and operating an electric load by connecting an input terminal of the electric load of the vehicle to the output terminal of the second voltage converter, when the auxiliary battery needs to be charged.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a divisional application of non-provisional U.S.patent application Ser. No. 14/945,124, filed on Nov. 18, 2015, whichclaims priority to and the benefit of the Korean Patent Application No.10-2015-0132164, filed on Sep. 18, 2015, the entirety of each of whichare incorporated herein by reference.

FIELD

The present disclosure relates to a battery charging control system andmethod for a vehicle capable of reducing power consumption.

BACKGROUND

The statements in this section merely provide background informationrelated to the present disclosure and may not constitute prior art.

Recently, a typical internal combustion engine vehicle using fossil fuelas fuel has problems of environmental pollution due to exhaust gas,global warming due to carbon dioxide, a cause of a respiratory diseasedue to ozone generation, etc. Further, fossil fuel present on the earthis restrictive and therefore may be exhausted in the near future.

Therefore, to solve the above problems, an electric vehicle driven by anelectric motor, a hybrid electric vehicle driven by an engine and theelectric motor, a fuel cell vehicle driving an electric motor with powergenerated from a fuel cell, etc., have been developed as eco-friendlyvehicles.

A power conversion apparatus is equipped in the eco-friendly vehicle, inwhich the power conversion apparatus is generally configured to includea high voltage battery and an auxiliary battery and a low voltage DC/DCconverter (LDC) which converts a voltage of the high voltage batteryinto a voltage for charging the auxiliary battery.

Therefore, the eco-friendly vehicles such as a hybrid vehicle and anelectric vehicle use both of the high voltage battery and the auxiliarybattery, in which the high voltage battery supplies special power to adriving system, an air conditioner, a heater, etc., of a vehicle and theauxiliary battery supplies power to low voltage vehicle loads like asystem of the typical vehicle. Further, when the power of the auxiliarybattery is insufficient due to the continuous supply of power from theauxiliary battery to the vehicle loads, the auxiliary battery is chargedby the LDC.

Therefore, various technologies for the system and method for chargingan auxiliary battery using an LDC have been developed. A method forcharging an auxiliary battery is provided to secure starting performanceof a vehicle and durability of the auxiliary battery by periodicallycharging the auxiliary battery.

However, we have discovered that since the auxiliary battery and thevehicle loads are generally configured to be connected to an outputterminal of the LDC in parallel, power consumed in the vehicle loads atthe time of variably controlling the voltage of the LDC for charging theauxiliary battery is also affected, such that the fuel efficiency of thevehicle may be reduced.

SUMMARY

The present disclosure provides a battery charging control system andmethod for a vehicle capable of improving power consumed in vehicleloads even though an LDC voltage for charging an auxiliary battery isvariably controlled.

According to one form of the present disclosure, a battery chargingcontrol system for a vehicle includes: a high voltage battery supplyingpower to a driver of the vehicle; an auxiliary battery supplying powerto an electric load of the vehicle; a first voltage converter connectingbetween the high voltage battery and the auxiliary battery; a secondvoltage converter connecting between the high voltage battery and theelectric load; a switch having one side connected between the firstvoltage converter and the auxiliary battery and the other side connectedbetween the second voltage converter and the electric load; and acontroller controlling a turn on/off of the first voltage converter andthe second voltage converter and a turn on/off of the switch dependingon whether the first voltage converter and the second voltage converterare broken and the auxiliary battery needs to be charged.

The controller may turn on the switch if it is determined that the firstvoltage converter or the second voltage converter is broken.

An output terminal voltage of the first voltage converter may be higherthan that of the second voltage converter.

The controller may turn on the first voltage converter and the secondvoltage converter and turn off the switch when the first voltageconverter and the second voltage converter are not broken and theauxiliary battery needs to be charged.

The controller may turn off the first voltage converter, turn on thesecond voltage converter, and turn on the switch when the first voltageconverter and the second voltage converter are not broken and theauxiliary battery need not to be charged.

According to another form of the present disclosure, there is provided abattery charging control system for a vehicle, including: a high voltagebattery supplying power to a driver of the vehicle; an auxiliary batterysupplying power to an electric load of the vehicle; a first voltageconverter connecting between the high voltage battery and the auxiliarybattery; a second voltage converter connecting between the auxiliarybattery and the electric load; a switch having one side connectedbetween the auxiliary battery and the second voltage converter and theother side connected between the second voltage converter and theelectric load to be connected to the second voltage converter inparallel; and a controller controlling a turn on/off of the switchdepending on whether the first voltage converter and the second voltageconverter are broken and the auxiliary battery needs to be charged.

An output terminal voltage of the first voltage converter may be equalto or more than that of the second voltage converter and may be changedwithin a preset output voltage range and the controller may control theturn on/off of the switch and the output terminal voltage of the firstvoltage converter depending on whether the first voltage converter andthe second voltage converter are broken and the auxiliary battery needsto be charged.

The controller may turn on the switch if it is determined that the firstvoltage converter or the second voltage converter is broken.

The controller may set the output terminal voltage of the first voltageconverter to be a maximum output voltage within the preset outputvoltage range and turn off the switch when the first voltage converterand the second voltage converter are not broken and the auxiliarybattery needs to be charged.

The controller may set the output terminal voltage of the first voltageconverter to be a minimum output voltage within the preset outputvoltage range and turn off the switch when the first voltage converterand the second voltage converter are not broken and the auxiliarybattery need not to be charged.

According to still another form of the present disclosure, a batterycharging control method for a vehicle includes: a failure determiningstep of determining, by a controller, whether a first voltage converterand a second voltage converter equipped in the vehicle are broken; acharging requiring determining step of determining, by the controller,whether an auxiliary battery needs to be charged if it is determinedthat the first voltage converter and the second voltage converter arenot broken; and a charging step of charging, by the controller, theauxiliary battery by connecting an input terminal of the auxiliarybattery to an output terminal of the first voltage converter outputtinga voltage higher than that of the output terminal of the second voltageconverter and operating an electric load by connecting an input terminalof the electric load of the vehicle to the output terminal of the secondvoltage converter, when the auxiliary battery needs to be charged.

The battery charging control method for a vehicle may further include:after the determining on whether an auxiliary battery needs to becharged, a power supplying step of stopping, by the controller, anoperation of the first voltage converter and connecting the auxiliarybattery and an input terminal of the vehicle load with an outputterminal of the second voltage converter in parallel, if it isdetermined that the auxiliary battery does not need to be charged.

Further areas of applicability will become apparent from the descriptionprovided herein. It should be understood that the description andspecific examples are intended for purposes of illustration only and arenot intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure.

DRAWINGS

In order that the disclosure may be well understood, there will now bedescribed various forms thereof, given by way of example, referencebeing made to the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a first configuration diagram of a battery charging controlsystem for a vehicle according to one form of the present disclosure;

FIG. 2 is a second configuration diagram of a battery charging controlsystem for a vehicle according to another form of the presentdisclosure; and

FIG. 3 is a flow chart of a battery charging control method for avehicle according to the present disclosure.

The drawings described herein are for illustration purposes only and arenot intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure in any way.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The following description is merely exemplary in nature and is notintended to limit the present disclosure, application, or uses. Itshould be understood that throughout the drawings, correspondingreference numerals indicate like or corresponding parts and features.

A configuration of a battery charging control system for a vehicle maybe largely divided into configurations of FIGS. 1 and 2. FIGS. 1 and 2have the same characteristics that an LDC (first voltage converter 300in FIGS. 1 and 2) for charging an auxiliary battery 200 and an LDC(second voltage converter 400 in FIGS. 1 and 2) for providing power toan electric load 700 are arranged, but as illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2,there is a slight difference in arranging a switch 500, a first voltageconverter 300, and a second voltage converter 400.

Referring to FIG. 1, the battery charging control system for a vehicleaccording to one form of the present disclosure includes: a high voltagebattery 100 supplying power to a driver of the vehicle; an auxiliarybattery 200 supplying power to an electric load of the vehicle; a firstvoltage converter 300 connecting between the high voltage battery andthe auxiliary battery; a second voltage converter 400 connecting betweenthe high voltage battery and the electric load 700; a switch 500 havingone side connected between the first voltage converter 300 and theauxiliary battery 200 and the other side connected between the secondvoltage converter 400 and the electric load 700; and a controller 600controlling a turn on/off of the first voltage converter 300 and thesecond voltage converter 400 and a turn on/off of the switch 500depending on whether the first voltage converter 300 and the secondvoltage converter 400 are broken and the auxiliary battery 200 needs tobe charged.

The voltage converter supplying power to the auxiliary battery 200 andthe voltage converter supplying power to the electric load 700 are notsame but are separately provided, and configurations of a circuit aredifferent for each case by controlling a turn on/off of the switch 500and the voltage converter depending on whether the voltage convertersare broken and the auxiliary battery 200 needs to be charged. The factthat the voltage converter supplying power to the auxiliary battery 200and the voltage converter supplying power to the electric load 700 areseparately provided and the fact of performing a control to make theconfigurations of the circuits different depending on the auxiliarybattery 200 needs to be charged reduce power consumed by the electricload 700 to improve fuel efficiency of the vehicle and the reason ofmaking the configurations of the circuits different depending on whetherthe voltage converters are broken is to perform an emergency controldepending on the failure of the converter.

As described above, when the first voltage converter 300 or the secondvoltage converter 400 is broken, the voltage converters may not converta voltage of the high voltage battery 100 into a low voltage and thusmay not supply the low voltage to the auxiliary battery 200 and theelectric load 700. Therefore, in this case, a separate control isrequired. As an example of the control, the exemplary form of thepresent disclosure proposes a method for turning on the switch 500 whenthe first voltage converter 300 or the second voltage converter 400 isbroken.

In the present process, it may be confirmed whether the first voltageconverter 300 and the second voltage converter 400 are broken by variousmethods. Confirming whether the converters are broken by sensing outputvoltages of each voltage converter is the most general method. Inaddition, it may also be confirmed whether the converters are broken bymounting a separate fault detection sensor in the converter.

As illustrated in FIG. 1, if it is determined that the first voltageconverter 300 and the second voltage converter 400 are broken based onthe above methods, the high voltage battery 100 may not apply power tothe auxiliary battery 200 and the electric load 700. Therefore, in thiscase, the switch 500 is turned on to connect the auxiliary battery 200to the electric load 700, thereby applying power to the electric load700 by the auxiliary battery 200. For this reason, as the switch 500illustrated in FIG. 1, a normal close switch may be used. The reason isthat when the first voltage converter 300 or the second voltageconverter 400 is broken, the switch 500 is always turned on to be ableto supply power from the auxiliary battery 200 to the electric load 700.

On the other hand, when the first voltage converter 300 and the secondvoltage converter 400 are not broken, the voltage converters 300 all maynot convert the voltage of the high voltage battery 100 into the lowvoltage and thus may not supply an appropriate voltage to the auxiliarybattery 200 or the electric load 700. Therefore, in this case, theexemplary form of the present disclosure proposes a method for improvingfuel efficiency of a vehicle by making the configurations of thecircuits different depending on whether the auxiliary battery 200 needsto be charged when each converter is not broken. The reason of makingthe configurations of the circuits different depending on whether theauxiliary battery 200 needs to be charged is that the voltage forcharging the auxiliary battery 200 and the voltage for driving theelectric load 700 are different. Describing in detail, it is naturalthat the voltage for charging the auxiliary battery 200 be higher than arated voltage of the auxiliary battery 200. The reason is that theauxiliary battery 200 may be charged due to a potential difference.However, the electric load 700 is basically supplied with power from theauxiliary battery 200 and therefore has the same rated voltage as thatof the auxiliary battery 200. Consequently, it may be appreciated thatthe voltage for charging the auxiliary battery 200 is higher than thevoltage for driving the electric load 700. Therefore, if the voltagessupplied to the auxiliary battery 200 and the electric load 700depending on whether the auxiliary battery 200 needs to be charged arenot supplied without being differentiated but are supplied in a lump,the case in which the auxiliary battery 200 need not be charged is notvery problematic, but in the case in which the auxiliary battery 200needs to be charged, a voltage higher than the rated voltage is suppliedeven to the electric load 700, such that power consumption consumed bythe electric load 700 may be increased, thereby causing a loss of fuelefficiency of the vehicle. For this reason, the present disclosureproposes a system for performing a control by making the configurationsof the charging circuit different depending on whether the auxiliarybattery 200 needs to be charged.

Here, how it is determined whether the auxiliary battery 200 needs to becharged should be considered and various methods may be used. Generally,whether the auxiliary battery 200 needs to be charged is determinedbased on a state of charge (SOC) of the auxiliary battery 200.Accordingly, the control unit 600 may determine whether the auxiliarybattery 200 needs to be charged based on SOC monitoring of the auxiliarybattery 200.

Referring to the foregoing description, when the auxiliary battery 200needs to be charged, the charging control system is configured to allowthe controller to turn on the first voltage converter 300 and the secondvoltage converter 400 and turn off the switch 500. That is, the firstvoltage converter 300 is connected only to the auxiliary battery 200 andthe second voltage converter 400 is connected only to the electric load700. Therefore, with this configuration, the voltage for charging theauxiliary battery 200 and the voltage for driving the electric load 700may be differently applied and therefore the loss of the fuel efficiencymay be reduced. The first voltage converter 300 outputs the voltage forcharging the auxiliary battery 200 and the second voltage converter 400outputs the voltage for driving the electric load 700, and therefore forthe foregoing reasons, the output terminal voltage of the first voltageconverter 300 needs to be higher than that of the second voltageconverter 400.

On the other hand, when the auxiliary battery 200 need not be charged,the first voltage converter 300 need not output a voltage higher thanthe output voltage of the second voltage converter 400. Rather, if thefirst voltage converter 300 is driven, power is wasted and therefore thefuel efficiency of the vehicle results in aggregation. Therefore, inthis case, in the configuration of the system of FIG. 1, the firstvoltage converter 300 is turned off, the second voltage converter 400 isturned on, and the switch 500 is turned on. By this, the driving of thefirst voltage battery 300 for charging the auxiliary battery 200 stopsand the output voltage of the second voltage converter 400 istransferred to the auxiliary battery 200 and the electric load 700, suchthat the electric load 700 may be driven at an appropriate operatingvoltage and the auxiliary battery 200 may be continuously maintained atthe appropriate voltage.

The operation of the system when the charging control system isconfigured as illustrated in FIG. 1 has been described until now.However, the improvement in the fuel efficiency depending on thereduction in unnecessary power consumption of the vehicle which is atarget to be achieved by the exemplary form of the present disclosuremay be implemented even by a configuration of other systems in additionto the configuration of the system of FIG. 1. Therefore, as an examplethereof, the configuration of the system of FIG. 2 will be describedbelow.

The configuration of the system of FIG. 2 is the same as that of FIG. 1.However, only a connection relationship of each component is different.The system of FIG. 2 includes: the high voltage battery 100 supplyingpower to the driver of the vehicle; the auxiliary battery 200 supplyingpower to the electric load of the vehicle; the first voltage converter300 connecting between the high voltage battery 100 and the auxiliarybattery 200; the second voltage converter 400 connecting between theauxiliary battery 200 and the electric load 700; the switch 500 havingone side connected between the auxiliary battery 200 and the secondvoltage converter 400 and the other side connected between the secondvoltage converter 400 and the electric load 700 to be connected to thesecond voltage converter 400 in parallel; and a controller 600controlling a turn on/off of the switch 500 depending on whether thefirst voltage converter 300 and the second voltage converter 400 arebroken and the auxiliary battery 200 needs to be charged.

However, differently from the charging control system illustrated inFIG. 1, in the charging control system illustrated in FIG. 2, the outputterminal voltage of the first voltage converter 300 is equal to or morethan the output terminal voltage of the second voltage converter 400 andis changed within the preset output voltage range and the controller 600controls the turn on/off of the switch and the output terminal voltageof the first voltage converter 300 depending on whether the firstvoltage converter 300 and the second voltage converter 400 are brokenand the auxiliary battery 200 needs to be charged. With thisarrangement, the unnecessary power consumption occurring by applying avoltage higher than necessary to the electric load 700 may be inhibited.Here, the preset output voltage range means a range between the outputvoltage for charging the auxiliary battery 200 and the output voltagefor driving the electric load 700. Therefore, the range may varydepending on a kind of the auxiliary battery 200 and a kind of theelectric load 700. However, considering the auxiliary battery 200 for 12V frequently used and the electric load 700, the output voltage rangemay be set to be about 14.5 V to 12 V.

Describing in more detail, when the first voltage converter 300 or thesecond voltage converter 400 is broken, the power of the high voltagebattery 100 may not be supplied to the electric load 700 and thereforethe power of the auxiliary battery 200 cannot but be used. Therefore, inthis case, as illustrated in FIG. 2, the switch 500 is turned on, suchthat the power of the auxiliary battery 200 may be supplied to theelectric load 700. The method for determining whether each voltageconverter is broken is already described above, and therefore thedescription thereof will be omitted.

When the first voltage converter 300 and the second voltage converter400 are not broken, like the foregoing case, the control method may bedifferent depending on whether the auxiliary battery 200 needs to becharged. When the auxiliary battery 200 needs to be charged, the outputterminal voltage of the first voltage converter 300 is set to be as amaximum output voltage within the preset output voltage range and theswitch 500 is turned off. In this case, when the auxiliary battery 200needs to be charged, the output voltage of the first voltage converter300 is set to be the maximum output voltage corresponding to the voltagefor charging the auxiliary battery 200 to charge the auxiliary battery200 with the corresponding maximum output voltage and the switch 500 isturned off to allow the second voltage converter 400 to supply thedriving voltage of the electric load 700. Here, the output voltage ofthe second voltage converter 400 is the rated voltage of the electricload 700 and corresponds to a voltage lower than the output voltage ofthe first voltage converter 300. Therefore, when the auxiliary battery200 needs to be charged, the voltage for charging the auxiliary battery200 and the voltage for driving the electric load 700 may be dividedinto two to improve the fuel efficiency of the vehicle as describedabove.

On the other hand, when the auxiliary battery 200 does not need to becharged, the output terminal voltage of the first voltage converter 300is set to be as a minimum output voltage within the preset outputvoltage range and the switch 500 is turned off. In this case,differently from the foregoing case, the output terminal voltage of thefirst voltage converter 300 is set to be high and thus the auxiliarybattery 200 need not be charged. Therefore, the output terminal voltageof the first voltage converter 300 may be set to be the minimum outputvoltage (as described above, output voltage for driving the electricload 700). In addition, using the same normal close switch as theconfiguration of the charging control system of FIG. 1 as the switch 500used in the charging control system of FIG. 2 may easily cope with thefailure of the first voltage converter 300 and the second voltageconverter 400.

The charging control method in addition to the charging control systemdescribed above may be made as illustrated in FIG. 3. The chargingcontrol method according to one form of the present disclosure performsa failure determining step (S100) of determining, by the controller 600,whether the first voltage converter and the second voltage converterequipped in the vehicle are broken; and a charging requiring determiningstep (S200) of determining, by the controller 600, whether the auxiliarybattery 200 needs to be charged if it is determined that the firstvoltage converter 300 and the second voltage converter 400 are notbroken.

The detailed method of the failure determining step (S100) and thecharging requiring determining step (S200) are described above andtherefore the description thereof will be omitted. Describing in detailsteps after the charging requiring determining step (S200), a chargingstep (S300) of charging, by the controller 600, the auxiliary battery200 by connecting the input terminal of the auxiliary battery 200 to theoutput terminal of the first voltage converter 300 outputting thevoltage higher than the output terminal voltage of the second voltageconverter 400 and operating the electric load 700 by connecting theinput terminal of the electric load 700 of the vehicle to the outputterminal of the second voltage converter 400 is performed, when it isdetermined that the auxiliary battery needs to be charged by the SOC,etc., of the auxiliary battery 200 in the charging requiring determiningstep (S200) is performed.

That is, it may be confirmed by the present step that the voltage forcharging the auxiliary battery 200 and the voltage for operating theelectric load 700 are divided into two. The auxiliary battery 200 isconnected to the output terminal of the first voltage converter 300which may output a voltage higher than the output terminal voltage ofthe second voltage converter 400 for charging and the electric load 700is connected to the output terminal of the second voltage converter 400to more reduce the power consumption of the electric load 700 than thecase in which the auxiliary battery 200 is charged using only the singlevoltage converter, thereby improving the fuel efficiency of the vehicle.

On the other hand, when the auxiliary battery need not be charged, asdescribed in the detailed description of the charging control systemillustrated in FIG. 1, there is no need to drive the first voltageconverter 300. In this case, a power supplying step of stopping, by thecontroller 500, the operation of the first voltage converter 300 andconnecting the auxiliary battery 200 and the input terminal of thevehicle load to the output terminal of the second voltage converter 400in parallel is performed. Therefore, in this case, the electric load 700is smoothly driven by the second voltage converter 400 and thus theauxiliary battery 200 may continuously maintain an appropriate voltagewithout being discharged.

As described above, the present disclosure may obtain the followingeffects.

First, even when the LDC output voltage for charging the auxiliarybattery rises, the vehicle loads may not be affected to improve thedurability of the vehicle loads.

Second, since the voltage applied to the vehicle loads does not rise inproportion to the increase in the LDC output voltage, the powerconsumption may be reduced due to the vehicle loads to improve the fuelefficiency of the vehicle.

Although the present disclosure has been shown and described withrespect to specific exemplary forms, it will be obvious to those skilledin the art that the present disclosure may be variously modified andaltered without departing from the spirit and scope of the presentdisclosure as defined by the following claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A battery charging control method for a vehicle,comprising: a failure determining step of determining, by a controller,whether a first voltage converter and a second voltage converterequipped in the vehicle are broken; a charging requiring determiningstep of determining, by the controller, whether an auxiliary batteryneeds to be charged when the first voltage converter and the secondvoltage converter are not broken; and a charging step of charging, bythe controller, the auxiliary battery by connecting an input terminal ofthe auxiliary battery to an output terminal of the first voltageconverter outputting a voltage higher than a voltage of an outputterminal of the second voltage converter and operating an electric loadby connecting an input terminal of the electric load of the vehicle tothe output terminal of the second voltage converter, when the auxiliarybattery needs to be charged.
 2. The battery charging control method ofclaim 1, further comprising: after the charging requiring determiningstep, a power supplying step of stopping, by the controller, anoperation of the first voltage converter and connecting the auxiliarybattery and the input terminal of the vehicle load with the outputterminal of the second voltage converter in parallel when the auxiliarybattery does not need to be charged.